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S OLAR BUILDING , E COPARK ,

H ARTBERG , A USTRIA
ARCHITECT
K ONRAD F REY

EXHIBITION ECO
An unpretentious prototype production building in a demonstration ecology park
involves ingenious technological and sustainable devices for conserving energy.

1
Building is in two linear tracts
which can be used separately or
together.
2
South elevation: conference room
on roof is hung from exposed
trusses. Fabric shades protect
from overheating.
3
Glazed east wall is shaded by
being recessed one bay. Building
celebrates its economical and
industrial origins.

46 | 1

The Ecopark on the edge of the

small town of Hartberg in Styria
was set up as a demonstration of
ecological design and
construction. Built on the site of a
former clay pit, it was intended to
be self-sufficient, and to heal the
bruising of the land without
depositing debris elsewhere. The
buildings exhibition and
production sites as in a normal
industrial estate were to be as
unpolluting and sparing of energy
as possible, in terms of both
consumed and embodied energy.
At the north-east end, there is a
natural pond to absorb run-off
water while attracting and
nurturing wildlife. On an adjacent

site Konrad Frey, a pioneer in

solar architecture in Austria since
the 1970s, was commissioned by
the parks organizers for a
prototype production building. Its
task was to act first as an
exhibition pavilion and then as a
factory/warehouse for solar
equipment. Sited at the north end,
it lies to the west of the ecological
pond with a high protective bank
dividing it from the highway
behind. It is approached via a drive
from the south which terminates
in its car park.
Frey accepted from the start
that the main task was to provide
economical general purpose
spaces, and he made two 700m2

linear building tracts 16m wide

and 7m high which can be used
separately or together. They have
contrasting characters according
to position: the northern one with
a fully glazed end enjoying a
dramatic view of the pond while
the southern has continuous low
glazing towards the approach. A
second brief requirement asked
for offices, changing and
recreation rooms which have
been built within the east end of
the southern tract as a two-storey
block. Above them on the roof is
the curved conference room with
its external terrace and longer
views, the one touch of real
extravagance in an otherwise low-

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cost project, and full of interesting

details. Various sun-shading
devices are applied to the
different faces of the buildings in
response to the calculated
exposure. The south facade, for
example, has Frey-designed
stretched fabric screens over the
windows, but it also serves as a
testing ground for a
demonstration of solar collectors
and solar control devices. Since
these products change, it retains a
deliberately experimental and
provisional look.
At first sight this project might
seem banal with its boxy forms
and standardized elements, for it
accepts the realities of industrial
estates and of serial production,
but the closer you look the more
unusual it seems. The energy-rich
steel frame expected in such

Page 48

buildings is completely lacking.

Instead the simple foundations
support minimal concrete columns
at 5m intervals, and these do not
reach the roof. Instead they
support timber-framed facade
panels skinned in particle board,
which form a continuous edge to
bear the roof. Frey reveals this
structural system on the north
side where it breaks for windows,
for he shows T-shaped glazing with
visible trusses in place of the
missing panels. The all-timber roof
deck spanning the 16m building
width follows the stressed-skin
principle. Plywood box sections
600mm deep containing their own
thick insulation layer were
prefabricated then hoisted into
place, resting on the side panels.
The slightly sloping roof surfaces,
topped with a membrane and a

thin soil layer to encourage plants,

meet at a central gutter. Lining the
ceiling is a layer of wood-wool
which acts as acoustic absorbent.
Unbroken by the usual beams, its
surface allows heating and artificial
lighting elements to be freely
placed. To show the freespanning nature of the roof
structure at its open end, the
glazed east wall set back a bay
for solar protection has only
the minimal steel supports
required for wind load. The
insulated double glazing is divided
in three horizontal layers, and
since the vertical glazing joints
were not structural and only
limited by delivery sizes, Frey
could play with the rhythm, taking
his cue from the thematically
appropriate 50s hit song O
sole mio.

Another structural curiosity is

the support for the conference
room on the roof. This
penthouse element would have
caused too much deflection in the
stressed skin structure, so it is
suspended from exposed trusses
above, which transmit its loads
back to the columns. The
structural network so provided
also turned into a convenient
bearer for a stretched canvas
awning for the terrace.
Conventionally skinned in metal,
the penthouse roof drains to a
gutter on the north side.
The long side walls are clad in
timber slats, which give
mechanical protection to the
insulation layer beneath while
allowing it to breathe. For the
end walls, Frey used PVC sheet, a
controversial material in

ecological terms, but used in

relatively small quantity.
Interestingly, this is the one
element that the client has asked
Frey to change because it sends
the wrong signals about the
parks ecological aims. It is being
replaced by a more cosy-looking
and predictable fur coat of
coconut netting.
In the age of image and spin,
the look is often more important
than the reality, and in ecological
matters people want to placate
their consciences while
continuing with their recklessly
consumptive lifestyles. So it is
difficult to see, in the often
chaotic display of ecological
projects, just what will really
count and what is mere window
dressing. The solar collectors on
the front of Freys building, for
example, have become an
obvious symbol of ecological
concern, almost a clich. But the
various sun-shading devices and
the setback of the large east
window are both more cheaply
achieved and passively effective.
These are the kinds of measures
architects should surely now be
adopting as a matter of course.
Potentially Freys most important
innovation, though, is the timberbased wide-span roof structure.
If this were applied to every such
shed in every industrial and
commercial estate in Europe, an
enormous energy saving would
be effected.

PETER BLUNDELL JONES

Architect
Konrad Frey, Graz
Photographs
Angelo Kaunat
4

S OLAR BUILDING , E COPARK ,

H ARTBERG , A USTRIA
ARCHITECT
K ONRAD F REY
4,5
Simple mass-produced
components are used to reduce
embodied energy.
6,7
Conference room on roof
supported by exposed trusses
over terrace that also carry
shading fabrics.

48 | 1

cross section through conference room, offices and north tract

ground floor plan (scale 1:750)

first floor plan

49 | 1